Gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles that are becoming more popular on our roadways these days are not as new a technology as people might think. If you think this kind of tech is only a few decades old, you’ll be surprised to find out that the first patent for such a mode of transportation was granted over one century ago this week.

Henri Pieper, inventor and gunmaker from Belgium, was actually granted a US patent for his invention of a car that uses electricity and gasoline as a method of propulsion on March 2nd, 1909. In Pieper’s application for his hybrid car all those years ago, he describes his hybrid invention that, “comprises an internal combustion or similar engine, a dynamo motor direct connected therewith, and a storage battery or accumulator in circuit with the dynamo motor, these elements being cooperatively related so that the dynamo motor may be run as a motor by the electrical energy stored in the accumulator to start the engine or to furnish a portion of the power delivered by the set, or may be run as a generator by the engine, when the power of the latter is in excess of that demanded of the set, and caused to store energy in the accumulator.”

{ad}So the question that pops-up in my mind is this. If the tech for hybrid cars has been around for over 100 years, then why only now are these cars becoming mainstream modes of transportation? Was it technical engineering issues or was it something else?

Reader Comments

http://nspso.com Jim Baldwin

Wow, I never would have guessed! and I thought I knew everything. I love to be proved wrong though. Great post ~ I love it.

Conspirist

The oil and or automotive companies probably bought the patent way back then. So if this is idea is 100 years old and were only seeing it recently, then what kind of technology exists that we don’t know about today.

bobby t

sure, the big oil companys have been buying up patents since before 1900…….big oil, (read rockefeller-standard oil) has been dong this for years………..anything to make you buy more gas and oil……….they have also been buying up companies for that long also…….it’s the same old story of combination over compitition…..buy 1900, john d. rockefeller was the richest man in the world, and still is….johnny come lately’s like bill gates, and the saudi oil shieks are just small potatoes….

argh!

in fact:

Professor Sibrandus Stratingh of Groningen, the Netherlands, designed the small-scale electric car, built by his assistant Christopher Becker in 1835. wikipedia: electric cars

baragla

The concept is too complicated, that’s why it did not take off – just like those fascinating multiple turret battle tanks. Nowadays, hybrids are a kitschy take on environmentalism: they pollute more both in the production process and during operation.

Ron

Actually, hybrid vehicles are earlier than that. The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI, has a hybrid vehicle from 1898.

Ron

Why are these becoming “mainstream” now? Well, they aren’t. That’s just a mis-perception created by the media. Electric cars have been around since the 1800’s. They worked great for the time since the only paved roads were within the city limits. But once people needed to go to other towns, electric cars were simply not feasible. Keep in mind that battery technology is really no different than the original batteries. Yes, we’ve refined the battery technology with better chemicals and such. But we are still using chemical batteries, with the drawbacks (i.e. long recharge time – or they explode, they don’t work well in cold environments, etc.). Around here in Michigan, I see plenty of hybrids – but they only represent a very small fraction of the new cars on the roads. And they all disappear come December – when the temperatures drop.